Winter and Spring 2018 are packed with everything from Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to X-Men films, Pacific Rim and Tomb Raider installments, and multiple Steven Spielberg projects. Things will cool off a bit at the start of the new year, following December's barrage of late year awards season contenders and crowd pleasing tentpoles (led by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle). However, it won't be long before things pick back up and big franchise movies - as well as buzzed about filmmaker offerings - begin flooding theaters again.
Acclaimed storytellers like Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, Wes Anderson, and the king of blockbusters himself, Mr. Spielberg, will be unveiling their latest directorial efforts over the first four months of 2018. The Last Jedi costar John Boyega and Welcome to the Jungle headliner Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson aren't resting on their laurels either and have fresh projects hitting the scene over that same period of time. From original stop-motion animated features to provocative sci-fi films, genre-blending comic book adaptations, and even a Taraji P. Henson action flick, the lineup for the next few months is varied, to say the least.
Per usual, these films are listed in the order of their release date and we leave it to you (the readers) to decide which ones are your personal most anticipated releases for the first third of the year. So, without further ado, here is Screen Rant's 2018 Winter & Spring Movie Preview - The 15 Films to See.
The Post (January 12)
Steven Spielberg is ringing in the New Year with a valuable history lesson, before he sets off on a virtual reality adventure this spring (more on that later).
Spielberg's The Post is based on the true story of how The Washington Post (circa 1971) shed a light on the infamous Pentagon Papers, revealing years of government coverups that culminated with the Vietnam War in the process. Meryl Streep stars in the film as the Post's publisher, Katharine "Kay" Graham, and shares the screen with frequent Spielberg collaborator Tom Hanks as the newspaper's editor Ben Bradlee.
The Post is currently playing in an Oscar-qualifying limited theatrical release and has already picked up several award nominations, in addition to being named the more talented character actors than you can shake a stick at. Awards season buffs and/or fans of late-era Spielberg won't want to miss this one.
Paddington 2 (January 12)
Everyone's favorite Peruvian bear is back with another live-action movie and plenty of marmalade sandwiches to go around.
Paddington 2 finds Paddington Bear (Ben Whishaw) having settled in nicely with the Brown family and become a popular member of the Windsor Gardens community. Unfortunately, Paddington's efforts to find the perfect present to celebrate his Aunt Lucy's (Imelda Staunton) 100th birthday then go terribly awry, thanks in no small part to the illicit deeds of one washed-up actor named Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant).
The Paddington sequel, like its predecessor, was co-written/directed by Paul King and features a human cast led by Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Peter Capaldi, and Julie Walters. Word of mouth from across the pond in the UK (where the film opened this past November) is that Paddington 2 is just as charmingly whimsical and heartfelt as the first installment, thanks in no small part to the return of so many key players. The movie's U.S. release nearly veered off the rails due to the collapse of The Weinstein Company - its original domestic distributor - but thankfully, Warner Bros. has since picked Paddington 2 up. Here's to another delightful outing on the big screen with Paddington and the Browns!
Proud Mary (January 12)
This January, Taraji P. Henson will take a break from playing Cookie Lyon on the small screen to go and try her hand at being an action star on the big screen.
Henson stars in Proud Mary as (who else?) Mary Goodman, an extremely efficient and deadly hit woman who works for a powerful crime family based in Boston. However, everything changes for Mary when she crosses paths with a young boy (played by youngster Jahi Di'Allo Winston of Feed the Beast) during a hit job that - of course - goes wrong and forces Mary to make some major decisions that will forever impact her career as a killer for hire.
Directed by Babak Najafi (Easy Money II: Hard to Kill, London Has Fallen), Proud Mary sounds like an assassin drama/thriller that has more than a few things in common with Luc Besson hits like Léon: The Professional and The Transporter (as well as, naturally, La Femme Nikita). It's the sort of pulpy flick that stands to be elevated by a noteworthy cast that includes Neal McDonough (Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow), Billy Brown (Sons of Anarchy, How to Get Away with Murder), and decorated veterans like Danny Glover, in addition to the Oscar-nominated Henson. Who knows? If Proud Mary proves to be a hit, it might even serve as the beginning of a Taken/Transporter-style franchise for its star.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (January 26)
Whereas Hunger Games split its finale in two and Divergent only got to tell three-quarters of its story, Maze Runner is wrapping up with a good old-fashioned trilogy.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure picks up a year or so after the second Maze Runner installment (The Scorch Trials), as series protagonist Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and his fellow Maze survivors prepare for one final showdown with the WCKD organization. Complicating matters is Teresa (Kara Scodelario), who you may recall tried - and failed - to get Thomas and the others to her in aligning with WCKD in The Scorch Trials.
Once scheduled to hit theaters in early 2017, Walton Goggins ing the returning Maze Runner ensemble and most of the same players involved behind the scenes, The Death Cure should be able to bring things to a satisfying conclusion without sacrificing narrative momentum or stretching things out unnecessarily in the process (a la its fellow YA dystopian properties).
God Particle/Cloverfield 3 (February 2)
Paramount's third Cloverfield installment remains scheduled to arrive in early 2018, but has yet to get an official trailer (at the time of writing this).
Once (and possibly still) titled God Particle, Cloverfield 3 revolves around a team of astronauts who work aboard a U.S. space station orbiting the earth. When the crew witnesses a Hadron collider accident that causes humanity's home planet to vanish, they are left with naught but a team of foreign space explorers to turn to for help. But is there more going on here than meets the eye? And can these mysterious new astronauts be trusted?
Similar to Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane before it, Cloverfield 3 is a thriller based around a small group of people who are tried and tested by an extreme set of circumstances. Much like its predecessors featured then lesser-knowns Matt Reeves and Dan Trachtenberg at the helm, Cloverfield 3 is being directed by Julius Onah (The Girl Is in Trouble) and is tackling a genre that's brand new to the Cloverfield franchise (here, a space based mystery/thriller). It's possible that Cloverfield 3 will connect more directly to the other films than Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane did to each other - but with costar Gugu Mbatha-Raw itting she has "no idea" how that's possible, it's best to not hold your breath.
Black Panther (February 16)
Before Thanos goes hunting for Infinity Stones, Marvel Studios will kick things off in 2018 by giving Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa a solo movie of his own.
Black Panther finds the young King of Wakanda beset by threats on all sides, following the death of his father in Captain America: Civil War. Those dangers include Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger - the son of a banished family, who wants the Wakandan throne for himself - and the now one-armed, but no less dangerous, smuggler and black market dealer Ulysses Klaw (Andy Serkis).
Black Panther cowriter/director Ryan Coogler has already shown he's capable of retaining his auteur sensibilities while working on a franchise movie, with his Oscar-nominated Rocky sequel/spinoff Creed. Indie filmmakers James Gunn and Taika Waititi injected their Marvel Cinematic Universe installments with lots of quirky humor, but the Black Panther trailers suggest Coogler is angling to deliver more of a geopolitical thriller. Armed with a slick Afrofuturistic aesthetic and a terrific cast that includes Oscar-winners Lupita Nyong'o and Forest Whitaker, The Walking Dead's Dana Gurrai, and Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya, the odds are in favor of Coogler hitting another home run with his third time at bat.
Annihilation (February 23)
Ex Machina writer/director Alex Garland is returning to the sci-fi genre in 2018, with a movie that promises to be equal parts thought-provoking and creepy.
Annihilation, which Garland adapted from Jeff VanderMeer's novel of the same name, revolves around a biologist (Natalie Portman) whose husband (Ex Machina alum Oscar Isaac) is permanently changed after he returns from a mysterious "disaster zone". The biologist thus decides to venture into this strange new world herself, in order to try and find out exactly what happened to her significant other. Suffice it to say, things don't go as expected.
If the film's intriguing premise and Garland's involvement behind the camera wasn't enough, Annihilation is further bolstered by an all star cast of women that, in addition to Portman, includes Tessa Thompson (Thor: Ragnarok), Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), and Ex Machina's Sonoya Mizuno. The Annihilation novel is the beginning of the Southern Reach Trilogy, meaning there's source material for sequels should Garland's adaptation prove to be a hit. While the film is expected to have relatively niche appeal (see also why Netflix is handling international distribution), it seems fair to assume that most everyone who gave Ex Machina a shake will/should do the same for Annihilation.
Red Sparrow (March 2)
We may never get a Black Widow solo movie, but we are getting a film about a Russian super spy/assassin played by an A-lister... just not Scarlett Johansson.
The movie in question is Red Sparrow. Based on the 2013 novel by former CIA operative Jason Matthews, Red Sparrow stars Jennifer Lawrence as Dominika Egorava: a prima ballerina who suffers a career-wrecking injury and is left facing a future of uncertainty. However, Dominika is then approached by a secret intelligence service and offered a shiny new career path - that of a Sparrow, a secret operative trained to kill through the art of seduction.
Red Sparrow reunites the Oscar-winning Jennifer Lawrence with her The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingbird Part 1 & 2 director Francis Lawrence. ing J-Law onscreen is a prestigious cast that includes Oscar-nominee Charlotte Rampling and Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons, as well as prolific character actors like Joel Edgerton, Mary Louise-Parker, and Justice League's own Steppenwolf, Ciarán Hinds. Francis Lawrence is arguably somewhat under-appreciated as a filmmaker and has continuously delivered handsome genre movies throughout his career (see also Constantine, I Am Legend, Water for Elephants). That doesn't look to change with Red Sparrow either, based on the trailer footage for the spy thriller.
A Wrinkle in Time (March 9)
Disney's latest live-action fairy tale feature moves away from the studio's famous animated filmography to adapt a literary classic, instead.
A Wrinkle in Time is based on Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 novel and tells the story of Meg Murray (Storm Reid), a young girl who travels through the vastness of space in order to find and rescue her father (Chris Pine). Along the way, Meg crosses paths with various celestial beings, including a trio of magical women (Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling) who help guide her along on her increasingly dangerous adventure.
Directed by Ava DuVernay of Selma and 13th fame, A Wrinkle in Time boasts lots of phantasmagorical imagery to go along with its inclusive, star studded cast, and intriguing narrative (scripted by Frozen co-director Jennifer Lee, no less). A Wrinkle in Time does have a disadvantage compared to recent live-action Disney smash hits like The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast, in that it doesn't have the same built-in audiences as those reimaginings of cherished Disney animated features. There's plenty of positive buzz surrounding the film right now, fortunately, and who knows - if A Wrinkle in Time hits it off with audiences, this might not be the only entry in L'Engle's Time Quintet that makes it to the big screen.
Tomb Raider (March 16)
Lara Croft is returning to the big screen at long last, only now brought to life by Alicia Vikander rather than her fellow Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie.
Tomb Raider (2018) is a reboot of the video game movie franchise that winds the clock back to when Lara was in her early 20s and taking college classes in London, making her living as a bike courier. Everything changes when Lara uncovers a mystery surrounding the disappearance of her father (Dominic West) seven years earlier, and sets out to uncover the truth on an adventure that will evolve her into - what else? - a full-blooded tomb raider.
The Tomb Raider video games got a gritty makeover in 2013 and the film reboot is unsurprisingly Captain Marvel). Video game adaptations are a difficult nut to crack - but between the behind the scenes talent, its down and dirty aesthetic, and Vikander leading the way, Tomb Raider may yet break the video game film "curse".
